Improvement in machines for digging potatoes



J. PETTENGILL. MACHINE FOR DIGGING POTAToBs.

16636669. "Patented 066. 14, 1.862.

Wimesses 1 mV-enlor:

UNITED STATES l PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN PETTENGILL, OF' CARROLL, NEWl HAMPSHIRE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 36,669, dated October 14, 1862.

1'0 all whom it may concerm' Beit known that I, JOHN BETTENGILL, a citizen of the United States of America, and

a resident of Carroll, in the county of Goos and State of New Hampshire, have made a new and useful invention having reference to the Digging or Removalof Potatoes from Land 5 and I do hereby declare the same to be fully described in the following specification and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which- -Figure 1 is a top view, Fig. 2 a longitudinal section, and Fig. 3 a side elevation, of it.

My machine may be used not only for digging potatoes, but to pulverize or cultivate the soil. -l

In the drawings, A denotes the frame of such machine, it being provided withV a tongue, B, and' a pair of handles, C G, they being disposed as exhibited in such drawings. The actnatin g power, whether suchbe a horse or oxen, is to be connected tothe tongue, while the per- A son who directs the'movements ofthe machine is to take hold ot' the handles. The frame is open' between its two vertical. sides a a, and is provided at its front with a sharp or hat nose or beak, b, which is to enter the'soil and penetrate below the potatoes.' Directly in rear ofthe said nose b, and between the two sides a a, is an inclined 'grate or grid, c, which' leads toward a rotary endless grid, D, consisting of rods laid parallel to each other and connected attheir extremity by joint-links. This end'- less grid works around two sprocket-wheels, d d, iixed upon a transverse shaft, e. It also traverses about rollers whose journals project from' the inner surfaces of the sides a a, one of such rollers being seen at g' in Fig. 2.. Fur- .thermore, thereis a'curved stationary grid, E,

arranged in rear of 'the endless' grid, it being 'composed of a series ot' rods extending across the frame A from side to side thereof. Y

A toothed wheel, F, engages with the endless grid, -a-nd is arranged below it, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the said wheel beingixed onL a horizontal shaft, Gr. While the machine may be in operation this wheel rests lon the'groundh and as t'hemachine may be drawn along over the same the wheel will be put in.v revolution,

and will actuate or set in motion Vthe endless grid.

Underneath the tongue B, and over the horiat an acute angle to oneanother, so that when the machine may be in operation they may pass through the vines and' sever them from the tubers or potatoes, the deflector snbse. quently operating to force such vines laterally out ot' the soil or out of the path of movement of themachine.

The rearlnost grid, E, although advantageous in its connectionpwith the endless grid, is not abslutely essential to the machine, and may often be dispensed with.

In the operation of this machine the pota toes and soil, while it may be drawn along, will be 'forced up the front grid and upon the rota# ry or movable grid, and by such will be `separated, the soil being broken up and discharged from the potatoes and caused to fall between v the' bars of the grid, while the potatoes may rema n thereon, and will be finally. carried backward and discharged-oithe rear end of the endless grid. A l claim as my invention The horizontal beak or nose b, an inclined' plane or grid, c, the endless grid' D, and the wheel F on the same, the deector H, and

knives I I, arranged and combined together l substantially inmanner and so as tooperatc as and for the purpose specified.

. JOHNl PETTENGILL.

Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, F. P. HALE, Jr. 

